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Topic: Speidie pizza...and some Speedy pizzas (Read 872 times)

Had much better results lowering the hydration to 60% (per Craig's recipes and comments) versus initial attempts closer to 63-65%. Also, not sure if from lower hydration or if over-fermented (24hr bulk & around 36hr balled in 65 degree wine cellar, then a couple hours at 72 degree room temp), but the dough stayed stretched out rather than snapping back a bit in previous attempts, so crust a but thinner and cornice not as developed, but excellent flavor.Dhorst is probably one of the few here who know what Speidies are. A Binghamton/Southern Tier of Upstate NY thing, cubes of meat (pork, chicken, venison, etc) that are long marinated in a heavily herbed marinade, grilled on skewers then slapped onto a piece of soft crust Italian bread…my wife likes to add sautéed peppers, onions and cherry tomatoes and while the traditionalist in me is offended, that does add extra flavors. Think shish-ka-bob or NYC street meats soaked in a thick Italian dressing, although much better. Anyways, layered with: garlic scape pesto, fontina cheese, pork & chicken speidies, sprinkled with Aleppo pepper. Had planned a second pie with San Marzano, mozzarella, speides, peppers & onions…but the boys had put all the leftover meat on the first pie.Have been wanting to take a shot at a NP Emergency Dough, so then made some Speedy pies. Tried a simple process of very high starter % in hopes of imparting flavor lost from short ferment time: 420g Caputo 00, 420g Ischia starter, 180g water, 20g salt to make 4 255-260g balls. Decent rise, crumb and structure (as shown in the Margherita pie) but as many have said on these boards, nowhere near the depth of flavors and textures (and digestibility) from a long ferment. But hey, had to learn for myself! My future ‘speedy’ dough efforts will be hoping that frozen balls work well.But, my oldest did make an awesome ‘breakfast pie’ with this dough: basil pesto, bacon from local butcher (also used in the Pain au Bacon and Cheese loaf), a hot Hungarian dried sausage from same butcher, excellent sopressata he brought back from SF, Hudson Gold craft cheddar cheese from upstate NY, topped with 3 eggs.

Love spiedies!!!! .. My favorites are from the Spiedie & rib pit-- easy to find, right next to Monroe Muffler;)Pictured is a pork Spiedie, Greek style, on one of their over seasoned soft pitas...a nice break on the way home to Syracuse after a long day tasting & spitting wine for work......